Both Good and Bad

Matthew 22:1-10, Acts 8:14-25 

We begin in Matthew 22 with another parable told by Jesus. He tells of a king who plans a wedding banquet for his son and calls upon those who have been invited to come. Yet they don’t. They go off to their farms and their businesses. Worse than that when he sends his slaves to come and get them they mistreat the slaves, beat, and kill them. Now these were the “good” people the king had chosen to attend. The king decides then that these invited guests are not worthy so he asks his slaves to round up everyone they find on the street, the good and bad, so that the wedding hall will be filled.

This parable reflects how God’s chosen, the Jews, rejected Jesus and the prophets sent before who told of the Messiah. Yet when he comes these highly educated in the law reject him and like in the parable of the vineyard put him to death. So, the king here, like God, gathers the unchosen. I love how he mentions both good and bad.

The book of Acts tells how the apostles proclaimed the good news of Christ inviting the Gentiles, the unchosen to the Wedding Feast of God. In chapter 8 they reach out to the Samaritans – the people the Jews disliked, one reason being their theology didn’t match theirs. Peter and John go out to them and help them receive the Holy Spirit. When one wants to buy this power, he is chastised by them to which he repents. It is said they proclaimed the good news to many villages of the Samaritans.

The chosen have rejected the salvation of Christ so we the unchosen good or bad can accept the good news of Christ’s salvation and come to the heavenly banquet of God’s love. Amen

 

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